


Following the Heart

by StrawhatsAndDelibirds



Category: One Piece
Genre: but its not like that's stopped me before, didn't know that this was already done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 08:08:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17076581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawhatsAndDelibirds/pseuds/StrawhatsAndDelibirds





	1. Chapter 1

After everything they had done, and everything that they had been through together. In an instant, it had all been destroyed. He knew the blame fell squarely on one person’s shoulder. Donflamingo. A monster in human skin that would kill his brother in cold blood, and took in broken people to give them a purpose, while using them as his own tools. It was sickening.

They had left, and Law was stuck there with a disease and the power to apparently cure it now. It was incurable, but he was certain that a twice traumatized thirteen year old riddled with pain from the disease he could potentially die from any day now was someone more than capable to deal with something like this. Emotions aside, he wished Cora was there for practical reasons. His devil fruit probably worked the same way his should. It did on a visual level, even if its effects were different.

At the very least they had read up on the devil fruit while they were looking for it, so he had a vague idea on how it worked. He needed to make a room, and then anything inside of it, he could move as he pleased. He was going to have to play this by ear, given how little was known about this disease because no one wanted to touch him. Which was exactly where an emotionally compromised boy on death’s door should be if you asked him.

It was like a bubble from what he had read, so that meant that he probably had to blow. So he took a big breath and started blowing. He was glad no one else was there because he felt like he looked like a fucking idiot. Especially since this wasn’t working. He coughed as his body rejected the entire stupid idea.

Maybe he was thinking too on the nose. It looking like a bubble in the illustrations didn’t mean that that was what it was. Cora’s power looked kinda like what he was looking for when he did it. Too bad he wasn’t here to give him any pointers. Because god knows he can only ever be dealt a losing hand.

Maybe arm movement had something to do with this. Law had to wonder why every idea he came up with have to be so embarrassing. This would be the last shot, and if this didn’t work, he was going to lay down and die. Everyone he loved was dead, and why bother putting off something that was going to happen to him soon enough.

Nothing mattered but he might as well do this. Cora wanted him to live, and he was already a child sitting in the snow blowing and crying. Might as well add flailing to the mix. Who cared at this point anyways. But somehow, the flailing worked. He managed to at least make a little bubble for himself, and for the time being it kinda kept him out of the cold. He could appreciate that. He hated how it reminded him of how Cora would use his own devil fruit, but emotional pain wasn’t something that could be removed in the bubble, so he wouldn’t think about this anymore.

Now that stage one was complete, he had to figure out how to deal with this. It seemed to be like a rash, a thick platey rash, but it still spread in blotches all along his body and clumping together. Well it was more like that lotion that you poured over something that was itchy and you let it dry until it was chalky.

Maybe he could remove one of those blotches, and see how that went. At this point how he made his powers work were entirely shots in the dark. He made a motion like he was sliding off a coat, and thought about the plates on his arms sliding off. The plates slid off and into the snow. A moment of horror dawned on him at the thought of another outbreak if this got the chance to spread, so he’d take off his actual jacket and shirt and put it on that for now. It was easier to see how well this was working anyways.

His arm did feel better once he had done that. So the issue must’ve been like a toxin smothering him slowly in more of a physical sense than a metaphorical one like he had previously thought. So this seemed like it was going to be an easy enough fix. He’d make sure to drop the flecks on his shirt instead of the snow. There was no hope of finding those evil little white plates in the snow.

Once he had given a once over on his body, he checked if there was anything else he was missing. Being tired was one thing, but the pain of the disease should be completely gone if he had done this right. And the sooner he had this done, the sooner he can move on to closing this thing and crying himself to sleep somewhere in this snowy hell.

There was a thought of dread as he realized that there was some part of him that he had missed. It seemed so basic, yet it was still over looked entirely in hopes that this would just be limited to the exterior. The whole basis of him being smothered by the diseased needed to include some actual smothering. None of the plates covered his nose or mouth, and they didn’t limit the diaphragm any, so obviously this wasn’t limited to the exterior.

His situation couldn’t have been any worse to push his devil fruit to his limits. He was just now learning how to use it, and now he was going to have to figure out how to remove a lung to clean it off? Like life hadn’t been trying to fuck him over hard enough. How the hell was he going to remove a lung? That was a tricky surgery as it was, and he was thirteen and barely had any training. He hadn’t developed the skill needed to carefully removing organs or even opening a human chest cavity.

The worst part about all this, was the fact there was an uproar coming from somewhere in the distance. How the hell was he supposed to concentrate on lung removal if some jackasses over the hill weren’t going to shut up.

At the very least, this was going to be an excellent place for him to vent his anger.


	2. Chapter 2

Heading out of his little bubble, he found that it disappeared. That was handy to know. He’d put his jacket back on, because he was no longer in the comfort of his bubble, and he’d bundle up his shirt to carry the disease in. He’d find a way to properly dispose of it once he found a way to remove his lungs and clean them off.

Now to turn his attention to the matter at hand. He’d like to know who the fuck these people were making such a commotion while he was trying to concentrate on something important. His devil fruit was exhausting to use, and it wasn’t like he was in a great mood to start with. It felt like they were all going to do some learning because it was going to be a good time for them to learn what happened to people who pissed him off.

He had made his room happen once, this could be a good chance to test the limits on some people. He had been one of the Donquiote family, so it wasn’t like some common thug was going to be a threat, even if he was as sick as he was.

Turns out he was right. It was some kids maybe a few years older than he was picking on a polar bear cub. They were loud and a pain in the ass, so he’d deal with this quickly.

“Hey. Shut the hell up over there. I’m trying to do surgery.” Wasn’t entirely a lie, because he was trying to figure out how the hell to do it on himself given the fact that he was still new to this whole devil fruit thing. But he was still unclear on whether he actually needed a knife or something to cut himself open. Or what could be classified as surgery given he was able to do things that were otherwise impossible with his devil fruit. He’d worry about semantics later.

Unsurprisingly, one of the thugs scoffed at him. “Beat it kid. Us adults are in the middle of something.” The bear whimpered as it was given another kick as the two of them laughed.

“I’m not gonna ask twice. Shut the hell up and stop bothering me.” They were going to force his hand. He knew it. This was such a pain.

“Why don’t you make us, twerp.” Had he been more ready for a stupid insult like that, it wouldn’t have been anything. But no one to his knowledge had called anyone a twerp in ten years. Now he was definitely going to do something about this.

He flailed his arms about, which was embarrassing, but was his only way he knew how to turn on his stupid devil fruit powers. They laughed at him, but he felt it working. The wind had stopped, so that meant that it was happening. Now to see what he could do now.

If he removed his plates off his body by moving and thinking about it, that could possibly apply to them as well. He just had to visualize it, and move his body accordingly. This was something he was going to have to refine. It was sloppy and was so embarrassingly dramatic. But none the less, it was effective.

It followed what he envisioned, and they were thrown right into each other. They passed through each other, but they probably got the point as they laid on opposite sides of the far end of the bubble. He moved the polar bear over to his side so it was out of kicking range. He could see that it was wearing clothes, but a bear in clothes was far from the weirdest thing he had ever seen. It was free to fuck off when it felt like it. “You gonna shut up now?”

The dazed goons looked stunned, and hopefully that silence was going to stay. “Good. Now keep your mouths shut or I’ll sew ‘em together or something.” That was probably something that he could do with his power.

Now back to what he was doing before. Those losers being thrown brought up an interesting question. Was anything able to pass through anything, and could he apply that knowledge to himself? He supposed there was really only one way to find out. He’d ready his bag of plates, hoping that this was going to work. If not he died, and it was a good attempt on his end, given that he was still a child.

This was going to get grizzly. He kept the image of his lungs being pulled out as he reached towards himself. He’d have to be gentle, and he had to accept that this was going to be weird. He had nothing to compare what this was going to be like mentally, so he’d deal with it as it happened.

But nothing could truly prepare you for your lungs being slid out of your body. He still could breathe just fine, and he could feel them expanded and contracted in his hands. He’d sit down so he could set them down on his lap. This felt like something he should’ve had a sterile environment for, but this late in the game did it even matter?

Now he was back to stuff he knew, he could see the huge blotches of white on them as well. It was still shocking considering they were his lungs, but given what he knew about his power, it’d work just the same. Imagining the plates sliding off like they were being wiped, and then it happened in real life. He’d give them a solid shake and envision anything in there coming out.

In line with how fucking insane his powers were, he coughed out a bunch of plates from his mouth on his body not attached to his lungs in any way. It made sense that he was still using them just fine, maybe even better at this point. He’d put the debris that was coughed onto his lungs and dumped it into the sack.

Now he had to do the reverse, and slide his lungs back into place. They did so naturally. Almost as if lungs were meant to slide through flesh and bone effortlessly. His devil fruit power was going to take a lot of getting used to. He tied back up the bundle of death and the exhaustion hit him. He felt better than he probably ever had, but he couldn’t even enjoy it properly because of the exhaustion.

“How were you touching your lungs?!? What were you doing to them?!?” The bear asked.

Even after all the weird shit that had happened today, he didn’t believe he was actually seeing that. This was just a side effect of him passing out, because that was definitely happening.

He’d deal with whatever in the morning. If they stole any organs at the very least he knew he could put those back.

Whatever.


	3. Chapter 3

Surprisingly enough, he woke up mostly comfortable. It probably helped that he was no longer covered nearly head to toe in painful blotches of Amber Lead, but something else felt off. He still kinda felt the rocking he had gotten used to feeling from sleeping on the ship while traveling with Cora, but this was different.

He definitely knew that this wasn’t the boat he had been on before, Cora was dead and he hadn’t returned back to the boat so if he was anywhere it wouldn’t be there unless someone had been planning to steal it and brought him onto it. It was barely more than a dingy, so it was beyond him how anyone would want to steal it. Not that he cared. It was a shitty ship and had no sentimental value to it other than Cora used it. He didn’t like the boat either. It was a means to get from island to island.

Law absentmindedly rolled over, and his face felt fabric. It felt different from a pillowcase, and if someone was kidnapping him he doubted he could get any sort of luxury like that. Whatever he was laying on twitched and giggled, rolling away from him and making his head slide off and hit the floor. It wasn’t a far drop, but it still was jarring and snapped him fully awake.

“Ow! What was that for?!” Law sat up and rubbed his head. He turned to see the bear those punks were picking on.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have rolled over like that.”

“Don’t apologize.”

“I’m sorry.” He should’ve known that’s where it was going. That was on him.

“Fine, I forgive you.” If he didn’t, they’d get nowhere. “So are you a devil fruit user as well?” He had seen pictures of Zoan type devil fruits when they were looking for the Ope Ope fruit in there. He’d question why he was still a bear, but maybe he was a new user too and was stuck that way. Devil fruits were a pain in the ass.

“I’m not! I’m a mink! I’m always like this!” He whined. Law was pretty sure he had read somewhere about mink. They were supposedly really rare, so Law never thought he’d actually get to see one. That said he never thought he’d live long enough to see teenage angst yet here he was.

“Alright, next question: Where am I and why?”

“I took you back to the ship I’m hiding on. I couldn’t just leave you there after you saved me from those thugs. I owe you my life for what you did back there, they would’ve skinned me and sold my hide for sure!” Law stood up, it was easier to get a look at this guy. He’d never seen a bear this tiny, and he couldn’t tell if that was a mink thing, or if this was because he was a kid. He was trusting like a kid, but the sea was full of people like that.

“You do know I did it for selfish reasons. I needed silence and that was the quickest way to shut them up.” He didn’t want to get a reputation for caring. He didn’t want to be bothered everywhere he went with pleas for help. Cora might’ve been a good person, but Law wasn’t. Who had the time?

“That doesn’t matter! You’ve still saved my life, so that means I owe you until I can return the favor!” This was exactly why he didn’t want to be a kind person.

“I’ve already had my fill of people ready to die for me, thanks. Been there done that. If you want to return the favor then keep living or whatever.” That was probably enough to please him. Law had other things to do, like go find a way off this ship and think of his next plan of attack.

Making a crew sounded like a good move, but he wasn’t going to get people that felt they were obligated to him. He didn’t have to manipulate people into joining him like some lowlifes did.

“You’re even nicer than I thought! I’ve decided that from today on, I’m going to do my best to help you in any way that I can!” How did he get nice from that. He basically told him to fuck off.

“I’m not looking for people following me because they feel like they owe me. What I’ve got planned is dangerous. I need strong people on my side.” The little bear looked down to the ground. If he had to break the kids heart to get the message that he needed to fuck off, then so be it.

“Well then I’ll just get stronger! I’m a mink! We’re a race of powerful warriors! If I practice and train, I’ll be more than enough to help you with anything you’ll need.” Law let his head fall back. What was it and him and finding stubborn people that wanted to elbow their ways into his life.

“So you’re ready to throw away your life for me because I showed you a sliver of accidental kindness?”

“No! I’m going to keep living or whatever because you showed me a sliver of your potential kindness.” This guy was a total sap. If Law didn’t look after him, something was going to happen to him. He didn’t need any deaths publicly associated with him this early on. Not while he was still figuring out his powers.

“Fine, are you at least going to tell me your name?”

“I’m Bepo! And I can’t wait to show you how strong and useful I can be, boss!” Law grimaced a little.

“My name is Law. But if you’re not going to call me that, I’d rather be captain.” It was still technically a boss, but captain felt more personal to him. He’d keep it casual, but he wouldn’t hide like a coward behind a fake family. If he was going to be a pirate, he sure as hell wasn’t going to be anything like Doflamingo.

“You got it, Captain Law!” Still felt wrong, but they’d work on it.


	4. Chapter 4

They had decided to stay in that sleepy little town for a little while longer. Law still needed to figure out a plan of action on how he was going to take this bastard down and figure out how to maximize the strength of his devil fruit. Bepo had taken to studying navigation, and helping Law with his devil fruit by trying to spar with him while he used it.

Oddly enough, it was almost trickier now that he wasn’t in a life or limb situation. It’d be easier if he had someone with a devil fruit to help walk him through learning this type of thing, but unfortunately Doflamingo had killed the only person with a devil fruit Law trusted, and there was no way in hell he was going back to his home so under prepared.

He could identify what his problem was, and by identifying it, he couldn’t tell if he had made it harder because of that. This was definitely a problem that came from over thinking. Before he didn’t have the luxury of over thinking, because every wasted moment was one moment closer to his impending death. He supposed that was the one bright side to having amber lead poisoning.

Somehow, he was going to have to stop thinking about this too hard. Which itself was an impossible thing to accomplish, given that he was going to have to think about not thinking. You couldn’t bring attention to something and not think about it. This was impossible.

Bepo was certainly strong, so having him attack him might’ve been a good idea to get him to start using his instincts. Unfortunately, Bepo liked him too much to really be able to attack him with enough malicious intent for it to register as something that needed him to focus on that instead of only on his power. Besides, even if he saw him completely destroy trees in his training, every punch Bepo had landed on him felt like a marshmallow was being thrown at him. Law was still undecided on whether that was really impressive, or kinda disappointing.

Law needed someone that wouldn’t feel bad about hurting him in the least. Someone that would go at him with full force and not pull any punches. It was annoying, but he felt that it was something that needed to be done. Doflamingo wasn’t going to lay down and die for anyone, least of all some kid who had the devil fruit he wanted and was a known traitor at this point.

“Hey freak!” Ah, not the most ideal annoyance, but for now he’d do. “You think you scared us with that lung shit you pulled earlier?!”

“I told you I was doing surgery, not my fault you got scared.” It was a lung, big deal. They didn’t even touch it.

“No one does surgery on themselves! Nice try!”

“There’s a long history of c-sections and kidney stones that would say otherwise but go on.” A smirk crossed Law’s face. “I supposed could tell you if you want, Bepo can cover his ears.”

Though they seemed more annoyed about how they could neither threaten nor loom over him properly to care about the long and traumatic history of self surgery. He could torment them at a later time about this sort of stuff.

“Your magic’s not gonna save you this time, brat!” He was almost a little offended that they called it magic. That was absolutely uneducated. If anything, it was science. Something changed in him on a cellular level and now he could perform great feats beyond the capabilities of a regular human. Plus his understanding of science was the real strength behind his fruit’s power. Magic was an absolute bullshit assessment.

“Are you gonna kick my ass or what, me and Bepo have studying to do and the library closes soon.” That riled them up good. They growled and ran for him, this time brandishing weapons. That was dangerous. What if someone competent got their hands on those?

He’d flail his arms, and pay attention to what motion was the one that set it off. Intent hadn’t seemed to play a role in this, so then maybe arm position had to matter. A nice horizontal swing seemed to be good enough to do it. He’d make note of that for next time. The fewer big gestures he’d have to make, the less lame he’d end up looking.

“We get it! You gotta hide behind your stupid magic because you’re really a twiggy little weakling! Stop showing off!” Like they hadn’t understood that they were only still here because they were helping him test his power out. Maybe they really were that dense.

“My Captain doesn’t need to use his devil fruit powers to kick your butt!” Bepo boasted, before turning expecting eyes towards him. “Right Captain Law?”

He very well could keep practicing out what he could and couldn’t do with his powers, but he already made a great observation. He could probably use them now whenever he wanted, because he had a fairly good idea on how to activate them.

“Fine, but you better be watching closely. I’m only going to show you once.” He took a few steps back, and the room deactivated. He’d deal with finding a better way to stop it later. Bepo was lucky that this was a good way to teach him, or else he wouldn’t be doing this.

He’d gesture for them to bring it on. Law might’ve been a little out of practice, but he’s been ruthlessly trained by feared pirates. They were bastards being used by a bigger bastard, but they did at least help him in the tiniest little bit. Law was definitely on the path to kicking all of their collective asses thanks to them.

Not pleased by his confidence, the two tried to rush him. He wasn’t exactly sure what they hoped to manage, given that they had left so many openings. Lifting their weapons above their heads exposed their sides perfectly for an attack. Should Law have wanted to, he could’ve easily cut them deep enough to sever something important. He could’ve possibly even gone for something vital and killed them on the spot.

But the cuts he gave were minor. He looked back at them as they clutched their sides. “Don’t take my convenience as mercy. Me killing you now would cause me nothing but trouble. I’ve got a lot of work to do before I get a bounty on my head. Now stop being a pain in my ass.”

They were preoccupied writhing, so he’d go ahead and be the one to leave. “Come on, Bepo. The library’s going to close soon.”


	5. Chapter 5

A few days had gone by, and Law was starting to feel a bit more confident in his power. It still felt embarrassing to move so much to get it to work. But he was sure that once he got this down, he might even be able to cut out the big arm gestures to get it to work. There had to be a way to make himself look badass while he was doing it.

“Captain! You’re getting so much better at this!!” Bepo cheered.

“Stop focusing on me and go back to your training.”

“I’m sorry, Captain.” He deflated a bit, but it was short lived as he focused back on his training. Law wondered how he seemed to always attract the weirdos. Luckily for Bepo, weird was endearing. He could thank Cora for that.

Something out of his peripheral caught his attention. It was too big to be something like a mouse, so that meant that it was no doubt going to be something that was going to be a pain in his ass. He hadn’t done anything wrong, but he didn’t wanna fucking talk to anyone. This was their space now and whoever was there before was going to have to deal with it.

Now was as good a time as any to test out something he was trying. Worst case scenario he pretended to be a freaked out kid who was just trying to practice his devil fruit powers. Even worse case scenario he killed the witnesses and him and Bepo left on the next ship leaving the island.

This room was slightly bigger than the ones he had done before. But with all the practice he had been doing, it was getting a lot easier to do. Law then swapped what he caught moving with one of the boxes near by. The pair of thugs that he had dealt with the other day landed unceremoniously on the floor as the boxes tumbled and crashed behind him.

“Will you two leave us alone. I’m tired of kicking your asses.” He didn’t want to actually kill these two, but he was starting to think that he might have to in the name of peace and quiet.

“We didn’t come here to try and fight you!”

“Yeah! We came here to join you! Anyone who can kick our asses is someone that’s worth following!” Law narrowed his eyes on the pair.

“Why would I want you to join me? You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass since we met.” He wasn’t even actively looking for people to join him yet anyways. Bepo was only with him so Law could keep an eye on him so he wouldn’t go off and get killed in his name. He cared significantly less about them.

“You want us because we’re loyal as hell! Not even death’s going to stop us from following you, Captain!”

“Plus you’ve only got two positions on your crew covered! We can do whatever you need! We’ll learn it for you, Captain.” What was it with people and wanting to die for him? He knew there were tons of people that wanted to die, but how did they all flock over to him? Why was this something that had to be his problem?

“I’m not looking for cannon fodder. If I was looking for more crew mates, which I’m not, I’d be looking or fighters. Strong ones at that.” Hopefully that would be enough for them to get the hint.

“Yeah! You gotta live for The Captain! And work hard every day! Nothing that you two would get!” Bepo sassed, no longer focusing on his training.

“We do work hard!”

“And we’ll not only live for The Captain, but we’ll kill for him! And we’ll get strong as hell so we can back up our claims!” Oh my god it was like none of these people listened to him ever.

“I’m not looking for anyone to die right now. I’m trying to keep a low profile. I can’t be out there with a bounty before I’m ready to leave.” He had only said this like a million times. They both were there. They were the ones that he said he was sparing so he didn’t end up in jail before he could slaughter Doflamingo.

The two looked at each other, then looked back at Law with more resolve than ever. “Then we’ll kill for you once we’re out at sea! But until then we’ll work harder than anyone has ever before to be what you need, Captain!” Goddammit.

“We already have a navigator and a doctor so you have to find something else to be.” Bepo seemed quite happy to have seniority over someone. At least someone was happy in all this.

“Wait, Captain isn’t the captain?”

“Stupid question: of course I’m still the captain. The knowledge that comes with being a doctor makes my devil fruit stronger. It’s strategically to my advantage to be both.” He might as well nip this in the bud before it got out of control. This was already going bad for him, and he didn’t want it to go any worse.

“Well then I’ll be the shipwright! I’ll build us the baddest assest ship so everyone knows we’re cool as hell.”

“And I’ll make the best fucking food you’ve ever fuckin eaten.” There was no way around this, was there. They had forced their way onto his crew and there was nothing he could do as captain of his crew that didn’t even have a name yet. This was a bad start if he had ever seen one. The person he cared the most about died and now he had a bunch of reckless assholes all lining up to join him but not listen to him. His efforts were going to have to double if they were going to get anywhere.

“I don’t think you guys have ever told us your names. I’m Bepo, second in command, and Law’s our captain.” He didn’t remember putting him as second in command, but that was fine. None of this mattered anymore.

“I’m Penguin.”

“And I’m Shachi.”

And collectively, this was a train wreck.


	6. Chapter 6

“So what’s our flag look like?” Shachi asked, peering over his books on culinary technique. Law gave him an annoyed look over his textbook, putting his finger where he was leaving off. Some of them were busy studying like they had set out to do.

“We don’t have one yet.”

“What do you mean we don’t have a flag yet? How can we be the-” Shachi stopped as a question Law knew was inevitable now that the other question had been asked.

“-We don’t have a name yet either. I wasn’t supposed to have a crew yet. That was planned for later once I had everything ready.” Law hoped futilely that that would be the end of that. He had given his official answer as captain, so now they could both go back to studying and he’d deal with this later.

“Well we’re a crew now, aren’t we? Who are we supposed to say we are if people ask?” Penguin joined in, his textbook being set aside.

“Your names because we’re laying low right now. I don’t want to get a reputation before we’re ready to do something with it.” Their navigator was a child, their shipwright knew basically nothing about ships, and their cook was no better. Plus they were nowhere near ready to be picking fights with anyone. Law wasn’t going to fight every fight for them, so they were going to have to learn at some point.

“We can’t just let ourselves be a crew without a name!”

“What happens if a marine catches us being pirates and we get stuck with a government assigned name? Because they come up with really name names sometimes. We can’t trust them to do it for us.”

“If I decide on a name and flag for us now, will you both go back to studying?”

“Yes.” Law sighed. He’d rather be studying right now, but if he wanted to have his crew on track to where he wanted them to be, he was going to have to do this.

Law knew that this was an important decision to make, hence why he didn’t plan to do it as a spur of the moment type thing. Care and thought had to go into this, because this was going to be tied to them forever and he didn’t want to have something stupid following him around until the day he died.

With everyone focusing back on their work, now was as good a time as any to get this done, he supposed. First he had to think of who they wanted to be as a crew. Their overall goal was his goal as a captain, so that was a good place to start. The whole point of them being united as a crew was to take down Doflamingo. He was a bastard who deserved nothing but shame and death, and Law was going to be the one to deliver it to him.

Doflamingo’s flag already had an dash through it, so it wasn’t like he could strike out his flag their own. Besides, that felt like it’d be lazy. But still as he thought about this, he had absentmindedly started to draw that jolly roger. He was about to erase it, when he felt something.

Something painfully familiar about that smile that looked back up at him. It was warm, stupid, and if he was someone that was sentimental, he’d almost call it home. The smile of a man who was willing to protect him with everything that he had, and then did.

It looked similar to that bastard’s, but this was something so much more than him. This would be a reminder to him of why he fights, and who he owed all this to. A reason to keep living, and a reason to keep fighting. At the top, bottom, and sides, he drew little protrusions. These would be each of them. Even if not directly, Cora had brought them all together. He never wanted to forget that.

The next part felt like it was a lot easier. A name jumped right at him once he had the flag drawn. “Alright, I’ve come up with a name for us. But you’re not going to tell it to anyone until we’re ready to leave.”

Law was pretty sure he had never seen books get slammed down that fast ever in his life. His crew looked at him with expecting eyes full of excitement. “From this day on, we’re the Heart Pirates.” He was the heart seat, after all. Even if it was a connection to that bastard, it was like taking it for his own and making it better.

His crew didn’t seem to get it, but after a few seconds they hyped themselves up. “Yeah!! No one’s going to mess with the Heart Pirates!”

“Did you make the flag too?” It was still a sketch, but he was pretty happy with it. He wasn’t exactly an artist, but he’d seen worse. He held it up for them to see, and they seemed to be pretty pleased with it too. Penguin snatched it from his hands.

“Don’t worry, Captain, I’ll make this into a real flag and we can hang it up around here!” That wasn’t ideal, but he knew that there was no stopping them at this point. They had picked up too much speed and they were too excited to be stopped. He’d figure out a way to change that eventually, but he’d tolerate it for now.

But he had to admit. It felt kinda nice to have his crew started. They weren’t exactly the all stars he had wanted, but he knew that they had the enthusiasm and determinations to get there eventually.

From today on, they’d be the Heart Pirates. A crew of feared pirates with unmatched power and cunning, and they were going to have Doflamingo’s head, no matter how long it took. He could feel the pride and excitement bubbling inside him. Law couldn’t help it, it was as infectious as the flu. He couldn’t say he really minded though.

“I’m going to make us matching outfits too!” Penguin declared. Shachi and Bepo cheered.

“How many times to I have to say we’re supposed to be laying low right now!?”


End file.
